William Owens (1750-1836)

William Owens came here from Virginia before Pulaski County was formed. He was
of Welsh descent, the son of William Owens and his wife, Jude, whose maiden
name is not known. William was born November 10, 1750 in Virginia and married
Nancy Owens, his cousin, September 20 or 30, 1773, in the Shenandoah Valley.
Nancy was the daughter of Vincent Owens, whose wife was Winifred Le Hue
(Lehew), the daughter of Peter Le Hue and his wife, Frances Allen.

Peter Le Hue, a Huguenot, was born in 1692 in France. He came to America
before 1707-12, settling at Front Royal, Virginia. "In 1760 Peter Le Hue was
the leading citizen with the best house applied for, and was granted a license
to keep an ordinary." A family legend, handed down from one generation to the
next, says, "Peter Le Hue was shipped out of France at the time of the
Revolution in a ventilated wine cask."

William Owens, the subject of this sketch, was a Revolutionary soldier who
served as first sergeant in Captain James Newell's Company, Colonel Preston's
Regiment. He and his wife, with several of their children, came here and
settled on the bluff overlooking Pitman Creek, near the present town of Elihu.
He built a one-room log cabin, which is now the living room of the house where
Mrs. Lum Allen and her son Edwin are living. He died in the same house in
1836. He and his wife Nancy are buried in the old Baptist Cemetery in
Somerset. They were the parents of six boys and six girls. Of their children
who married into the family of Samuel Newell were William, who married Margaret
Newell, and Nancy, who married Samuel Newell, the brother of Margaret.

The remaining children were: Judah; Reuben, married Sally Lockhart, moved to
Clinton County; Jane, married Samuel Tate, lived in Pulaski County; Sarah,
married Hansford Price, lived in Pulaski County; Rebecca, married Wesley Short,
moved to Indiana; Avy, married John Short, moved to Indiana; Lavina, married
Reuben Short, moved to Indiana; John, married Ann Chesney, lived in Pulaski
County; and Martin, married Polly Chesney, moved to Rockcastle County.

Two of these sons Samuel and Martin, were Baptist preachers, Martin being one
of the early ministers of the Flat Lick Baptist Church.

The Shorts and Samuel Owens emigrated to Indiana. Their descendants are living
near Bedford and Bloomington, Indiana, today.

There are many descendants of those who remained in Pulaski. One of them was
Samuel Tate, a great-grandson who, at the age of eighty-four, wrote a history
of the Owens family, from which the following quotation is taken:

Grandfather Owens was quite wealthy when he died. He had fifteen Negro
servants and several likely young men (Negroes) and women who were bought at
his sale and taken south by traders. Grandfather lived with his daughter Jane
and her husband [Samuel Tate] until her death. She kept one Negro man and
woman to wait on her. When Grandfather went to housekeeping the family bedding
was made of bearskins.